Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05) today released the following statement on the third anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision about the impacts it has had on reproductive health care across the United States.

“On the third anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the American people are seeing the corrosive impact of overturning Roe v. Wade, which guaranteed women’s right to privacy and the freedom to choose abortion care throughout the United States.

“The Dobbs decision has unleashed a coordinated assault on reproductive freedom in state legislatures, Congress, and the courts. We now have a patchwork of abortion bans and ever-changing regulations that place the health care decisions of millions in the hands of politicians, making access to care dependent on where a woman is seeking it. Women have been denied necessary medical care, causing them and their families heartbreak, pain, and loss of life. Medical providers and others have been threatened, and sometimes charged, with criminal sanctions.

“Nowhere has this impact been felt more acutely than in our communities of color, where maternal mortality rates were already three to four times higher than the national average – which itself is exponentially higher than in other developed countries. This disparity reflects our broader failure to invest meaningfully in comprehensive reproductive and maternal health care. The fallout from the Dobbs decision has worsened existing barriers to care. We have already seen the deaths of several pregnant women because they were denied abortion services under new restrictions. 

“Overturning Roe v. Wade has emboldened extremists to continue attacking reproductive rights, access to contraception and IVF, same-sex marriage, and other important personal freedoms. As 22 states ban or restrict abortion, women nationwide are being forced to travel across state lines for reproductive care, denied life-saving medical treatments, and stripped of the right to decide what happens to their bodies. 

“Every person should have the power to make their own reproductive health care decisions, without interference from politicians. We must protect and expand protections for these freedoms and fight for better access to care for all patients. That’s why I’m leading legislation to repeal the Comstock Act, a Victorian era ban on the mailing of medication abortion and other materials used in abortion procedures, as well as supporting bills to codify the right to receive and provide abortions, contraception, and IVF. 

“As Republican lawmakers continue their efforts to strip reproductive freedoms and push for a national abortion ban, I will continue working to codify abortion rights and ensure that all Americans have access to comprehensive reproductive health care, no matter where they live.”

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